Dragon Ball Z - Episodes 71-75 - Discussion Thread [Rewatch - Week 15]

[Ajay]

Welcome! For details on this rewatch, click here!

<insert guard down meme here>

Here are some legal ways to stream the series:
Funimation (North America)
AnimeLab (Australia and New Zealand)

This week we're covering:

[spoiler]ビックリ！！悟空がギニューでギニューが悟空
Bikkuri!! Gokū ga Ginyū de Ginyū ga Gokū
Surprise!! Goku is Ginyu and Ginyu is Goku

In order to buy time so that Dende can inform Gohan and the others about the password for summoning Shenlong, Nail challenges Freeza to battle! Nail regenerates when his arm is ripped off, but his battle power has fallen… Aiming for the place where the Dragon Balls are assembled, Bulma is chased by dinosaurs, but saved by Gohan and Kuririn in the nick of time. Taking the radar, Gohan and Kuririn head in search of the Dragon Balls. Meanwhile, Ginyu uses Body Change to switch bodies with Goku!

出でよ超神龍！！ボクの願いをかなえたまえ
Ide yo Sūpā Shenron!! Boku no Negai o Kanaetamae
Come Forth, Super Shenlong!! Grant Me My Wish

Goku has had his body swapped with Ginyu’s. Not used to Ginyu’s body, and wounded, Goku is unable to fly fast! Gohan and Kuririn discover the Dragon Balls near Freeza’s spaceship! Ginyu in Goku’s body and Jheese arrive there, and Goku also catches up with them!!

奴はオラじゃネェ！悟飯びびるな父を撃て！！
Yatsu wa Ora ja Nē! Gohan Bibiru na Chichi o Ute!!
That Ain’t Me! Gohan, Don’t Lose Your Nerve, Hit Your Father!!

Ginyu tries to display the power of Goku’s body, and puts his power at full throttle! But his battle power is only 20,000?! Not being used to Goku’s body, he is unable to put forth all of its power! Ginyu has a difficult fight as Gohan, Kuririn, and then Goku attack him. Vegeta defeats Jheese as well, and then attacks Ginyu! Ginyu receives considerable damage, but this time he begins to Body Change with Vegeta!

大誤算！！ギニューがカエルになっちゃった
Dai-Gosan!! Ginyū ga Kaeru ni Natchatta
A Huge Miscalculation!! Ginyu Has Turned into a Frog

As the light from the Body Change is about to capture Vegeta, Goku leaps in the way!! He returns to his original body! But Ginyu once again attempts to Body Change with Vegeta! Unable to move, Goku instantly tosses a frog! Why, Ginyu has switched bodies with a frog…! At Vegeta’s advice, the heavily injured Goku receives treatment from a medical machine. The decisive battle with Freeza is straight ahead!

七ッの玉を揃えし者よ…さあ合言葉を言え！
Nanatsu no Tama o Soroeshi Mono yo… Sā Aikotoba o Ie!
Thou Who Hast Gathered the Seven Balls… Now Speak Forth the Password!

After the battle with Ginyu, Goku is healed inside a medical machine. Kuririn heads to see the Eldest in order to ask for the password to summon Shenlong. Meanwhile, Freeza tries to get the password out of Nail. But Nail says that he was simply buying time for Dende to go tell the password to the others, and laughs fearlessly. At that time, Gohan and the others call forth Shenlong. It turns out that the password was simply that you had to speak in Namekian. There are three wishes that will be granted, but…[/spoiler]


Suggested Format & Weekly Questions

Language: For the sake of context, let us know which language you're watching the series in (and what score, if required).
General Thoughts: Your thoughts on the episode, possibly linked to the suggested questions if need be. Cover the plot, the tone, the character interactions, and characterisation.
Entertainment Factor: How was the pacing? Did the episode keep you entertained throughout, or what could have been done better?
Animation: Did you like the action sequences, or the way characters emoted? Did things move in a satisfying way, or was it mostly style over substance?
Questions: Not necessary, but if you're curious about opinions on a specific point that hasn't been touched on, go ahead and ask! It's a nice way to spur the topic onward.

- Goku has a bad habit of letting his guard down at crucial moments. Do you think this had been established as a theme by the time Ginyu stole his body?

- What do you think about Toriyama's attempt to create a fictional language? Do you find it odd that the Saiyans don't seem to have one?

- What do you think about Freeza acting on his own without any minions to do the dirty work for him?

[gaberparadiso]

Episode 71

General thoughts: all right, there's an entire Bulma cutaway, but I don't care. This episode has two plots, the 1st involves the fight between Nail and Freezer, which is one-sided as expected. He even lets Nail hit him to give him a chance, but he's just no match for the space tyrant. The 2nd plot involves Goku and Ginyu, who keeps on laughing hysterically because he actually found a strong body to seize. He proceeds to change his wounded body with Goku's, through his special move "Body Change", which catches him off-guard. But this wasn't his fault, since he didn't expect such a move, especially considering he couldn't know Ginyu would hurt himself before using that technique. Ginyu's plan seems clever now, but it will raise several doubts in the following episodes, since he should've been aware of getting used to his new body first, before being able to use it at his full power. In fact, WHY doesn't he know the side effect of his OWN technique? It's a bit stupid and makes no sense.

Entertainment factor: rather enjoyable. Orime's direction is pretty solid, though not as great as his previous two.

Animation: as usual, pretty neat storyboarding from Orime, who makes distinctive use of suggestive angles and of his trademark holograms, when Bulma thinks about Goku. Ebisawa's characters are generally ugly, especially his Bulma and Vegeta, but I'm gonna lie, his twisted proportions are incredibly and surprisingly fitting in some instances: for example, we can see some Namekian corpses at the beginning, with some hideous expressions, which is a pretty clever move. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/dra ... 0929165409 https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/dra ... 0929170236 Or his wicked and twisted look on Ginyu-Goku, which is again a sensible pick. Iida and Kan'no's art is as usual quite nice, and after seeing the latter's early works, I believe I enjoy earlier Kan'no more than late Kan'no, maybe because of a less square art. https://twitter.com/DBanimators/status/ ... 5164082176 Animation-wise, Nail's power up is animated by Iida, whereas his attack on Freezer is handled by Kan'no, who also animates the first part of the Body Change sequence, alongside Ebisawa, which might look jarring at first, but it's actually a fairly sensible choice in hindsight. https://twitter.com/DBanimators/status/ ... 9214811136

Music: okay-ish placement. Although, M516 during Bulma's cutaway is a WASTE, and M738C overlapping with the final notes of M816 is definitely weird.

Overall: 7/10. Decent.

[gaberparadiso]

Episode 72

General thoughts: theoretically, I should be happy to see none of Bulma's cutaways... but this episode is quite lackluster. First of all, the first part with Vegeta and Freezer's minions is terribly LONG. It should've been finished within a couple of minutes top. HALF of the entire 1st half is about Vegeta screwing around with Freezer's weak soldiers. In fact, the main complaint about this episode is that it's not very well-directed. I dare to say it's pretty bad: almost everything feels like a waste of time, from Krillin and Gohan laughing to Jeice and Goku-Ginyu striking some poses, because I don't perceive an ACTUAL direction. It's THAT bad. Besides, Krillin's characterization is so all over the place, as they made him a complete moron: if Gohan tells him copious times that Goku isn't the real one, WHY does Krillin insist on thinking the opposite?? Albeit Gohan thinking of Goku in Ginyu's body is kinda funny, it doesn't certainly help this episode improve. This is a total mess.

Entertainment factor: again, it's not that enjoyable, because Hashimoto's direction ranges from being mediocre to plain terrible.

Animation: THANKFULLY, Ohara and Shida are the only positive things about this wrecked episode: Ohara animates the highest number of cuts, as per usual, including the entire sequence with Vegeta, and the final scenes with Goku-Ginyu and Ginyu-Goku, with some first (looped) exchange of attacks between Goku-Ginyu vs Krillin and Gohan. https://twitter.com/DBanimators/status/ ... 6438786048 Nevertheless, the animation highlight is Krillin trying to summon the dragon, animated by Shida, which shows outstanding and superb character acting, with an impressive speed and timing. Something so unique we also see nowadays from him. https://twitter.com/DBanimators/status/ ... 8436667392 Overall, pretty solid Last House episode, also with some uncredited work from Uchiyama himself. It's kinda funny to see Ohara's Ginyu with canines once again. https://twitter.com/DBanimators/status/ ... 8471826432

Music: it's been a while since I found an overall BAD and DEBATABLE placement: M808 when Vegeta kills off Freezer's minions doesn't fit the scene by any means, and M1020, A Sign of Hope a.k.a. the dududu theme, when Krillin and Gohan realize Goku and Ginyu swapped bodies??? MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER.

Overall: 5,5/10. Could've been lower, thanks to the Last House duo.

[Taisa732]

Language: Japanese

Episode 71:
General Thoughts: Here's something silly, so we are on a different planet faraway from Earth, so why do we have the same exact dinosaur that chased Gohan during his training before Nappa and Vegeta arrived? What, did he build his own little spaceship just to follow and harass Gohan?
Ok look, Toriyama didn't bother with wild life on Namek, but we saw other creatures in other episodes so why do we have “Earth fauna” on a different planet? I know that this is just one of my (many) pet-peeves, so I'll move on. (and yes, I know the reason in “bank”, but this bothers me on ad environment point of view also)
I think that the Freeza and Nail scene is probability the most interesting part of the episode, even better that Goku and Ginyu exchanging bodied. It's most likely because it finally tells us how far more powerful Freeza is than everybody else, including Goku. His “My power level is 530.000” line comes just after we discoverer that Goku's is around 180.000, making you realize that Goku's arrival isn't enough to beat this guy.
Final note, it's kinda funny that Goku's first concern after the body exchange is Chichi's reaction.

Animation: Not too bad. I enjoyed Freeza and Nail's scene and for once I do have to say that I did like Ebisawa's work. When Ginyu and Goku exchange bodies there are some cuts where they appear distorted during the procedure. Admittedly if anybody else would've handled the scene it most deferentially wouldn't have been as interesting.

Episode 72:
General Thoughts: First and foremost, nice foreshadowing with the frog!
This is more of a “reaction” episode, in the sense that everybody is figuring out what happened between Goku and Ginyu. They are also discovering that summoning Porunga isn't that easy.
Love Vegeta lurking in the background listening to everything that is being said and getting to his own conclusions.

Animation: I have to say, Ginyu Tokusentai's little dances are always entertaining to watch, but in this case Krillin's over-animated attempt to summon the dragon takes the cake. I've always loved that cut, and watching it frame by frame it's even more animated! Absolutely adore it.

Episode 73:
General Thoughts: Three fights in this episode and it's something I really appreciate, wished it happened more often.
The Freeza and Nail one is mostly standing around and that's justified by the fact that it's basically one-sided. Between the other two I like the Vegeta vs Jeice a bit better just because of it's execution...

Animation: … Although I like the fist part of the Ginyu fight (and the twist that Goku's body isn't doing him any favours) the fact that it comes down to the same cuts repeated over and over ruins it entirely. If I had to watch just the first part on it's own I would've enjoyed a lot more, but seeing it again and again becomes annoying very quickly. They don't even repeat the best cuts, they use mediocre ones that are boring at best.
Vegeta vs Jeice has it's one problems, like the first dialogue where the lip-sinking is practically inexistent. They just move there mouths randomly and the fact that that's almost the entire scene makes it so much worse.
However, a couple of things saves it, if only just slightly. Vegeta appearing form the smoke and hitting Jeice in the face is probability the best part of the entire episode, and the colours when they are in the spaceship are at least interesting to watch.
Other than that this episode is pretty bad overall.

Episode 74:
General Thoughts: And with this we conclude the Ginyu Tokusentai portion of the arc. How it concludes it's actually very clever, nobody could've predicted that in the end Ginyu would've become a frog.
But other than that there are a couple of little things I really enjoy in this episode. First of all it contains one of my personal favourite filler scenes, when Goku sees the needle. It's just so funny.
Aside from the fact that Goku's fear of needles amuses me to no end, I've already mentioned this, but this is probably the best one. It has a lot to do with the situation, the funniest part for me is the fact that at this point Vegeta is a little more than a stranger to him. In fact he's nowhere near the friend he is today. It's basically the first time Vegeta has to deal with “Kakarot's weirdness”. But that's only part of the reason I find it so entertaining, Gohan and Krillin's reactions are even better. Between Krillin holding Goku by the neckband and Gohan feeling ashamed from his father's behaviour. To that add the fact that Goku has a sudden burst of energy just when he sees the needle and starts shooting “I don't need medical attention” when he clearly does. Love it.
Another reason why I like this episode is because of the battle suit talk. It's nothing more than world-building, but I really appreciate it.
Lastly Vegeta getting so tired he can hardly stand makes him more human. The poor guy hasn't slept for three or four days, it tells you a lot about his endurance, but even he has his limits.

Animation: Best part is easily the beginning of the episode. Vegeta's fight against Ginyu is nicely done, in particular the reflection on the dragon balls, also showing the frog coming out from it's hiding.

Episode 75:
General Thoughts: This is basically a build-up episode that prepares us for what's to come in the next one.
Nail has spilled the beans so now Freeza is coming filled with anger and Vegeta has gone to sleep, but you know that won't last. I love how Freeza realize his mistake in leaving Dende go before, and the luck Krillin has in meeting him halfway.
I also find funny Gohan's little theatrical performance before discovering that Vegeta was standing there probability for the entire time.

Animation: Some things I've enjoyed in this episode are Krillin and Dende's reflections on the water when they fly above it, and the way it's shown how small Krillin, Gohan and Dende are in comparison with Porunga.

- Goku has a bad habit of letting his guard down at crucial moments. Do you think this had been established as a theme by the time Ginyu stole his body?

Goku's habit of letting his guard down is a consequence of his naivety and sometimes overthrusting of others, and that is something that is established from day one. When he was a kid there were a lot of instants where he took a beating because he got fooled by the oldest tricks in the book.
As an adult he learned how to avowed falling for the “what's that?” gimmick, but he still tends to underestimate danger even when it's obvious.
This is also the time where his habit goes from being naive to arrogant, like BoG Whis points out.

- What do you think about Toriyama's attempt to create a fictional language? Do you find it odd that the Saiyans don't seem to have one?

Toriyama introduced fictional languages back in the 23° Tenkaichi, when Piccolo and “Shen” start talking what we now know is namekian. At the time it was just a way to add mystery to this “Shen” character and his relation with the at the time villain. Going on planet Namek meant that the language used then needed to be included in the lore and to the backstory for the non-named namekian (a.k.a. Kami and Piccolo).
When he's introduced, Freeza warns Moori to talk a more common language, knowing that he can like every other namekian. Language that is probability used in the entire universe and in Freeza's army, made from different races form different planets. Who knows how many other species talk different languages in the mix, but to uniform them all they have to speak a more widespread one.
It's also true that we have it in a written form. Scouters are used in an alien writing, Bulma actually says that she needs to translate Raditz's before using it.
So what about the saiyans? When there are introduced they are a dead or dying race with only three survivals (aside form Kakarot). Two of which (Raditz and Vegeta) where just kids when there planet exploded and had to became Freeza's soldiers. So basically they were forced to speak almost exclusivity the “common language” since childhood, more than there own.
Maybe saiyans do have there language, they simply don't use it anymore.
But if you want me to point out the obvious reason, it's more convenient for us and for the creators (starting with Toriyama, but not only him) to not have so many languages. If you think about it, a part from the summoning and dragon ball wishes namakian isn't used very much, even when namekian people are talking among themselves.

- What do you think about Freeza acting on his own without any minions to do the dirty work for him?

This is another “because plot” answer. Imagine if Freeza would've send Ginyu instead... it would've been just a massacre. Freeza would've just kill them all without effort an we wouldn't have dragon balls or wishes in the middle.
Ginyu was meant for round 2 of the Ginyu Tokusentai portion of the arc and an adversary for Goku, the first that gave him some sort of trouble.
With this said the “in world” excuse is believable enough and I'm ok buying it. Afterall, Freeza isn't somebody who as problems doing the dirty work on his own if he must.

[gaberparadiso]

Episode 73

General thoughts: this episode has so many problems. For instance, there's a connection between what I said about ep. 71 and this episode, which explains why Ginyu is stupid: the Body Change was presumably invented by Ginyu himself, thus WHY doesn't he realize the side effect of his own technique? You cannot use a technique without knowing it inside out. EVEN Goku, who is not that intelligent, realizes how Ginyu is an idiot by swapping his body with Goku's. Then, this episode shows two fights (three if you also count Nail vs Freezer), Gohan and Krillin vs Ginyu and Vegeta vs Jeice, and... bruh, the result is simply FRUSTRATING. The problem is NOT reusing animation, but reusing animation with STYLE. You have TWO different fights, in the SAME EXACT PLACE, but the way they are portrayed here look like they're really far from each other. In other words, my biggest complaint is not WHY so much reused animation, but HOW it is reused. Take ep. 129 from DBS for example: it had a lot of BANK, but Mitsuka's terrific direction acted as a glue between talking and fighting, through an impressive storyboarding and music placement. On the other hand, this episode is simply a muddle of cutaways: first the fight vs Ginyu, then the fight vs Jeice, Kaio's cutaway, Dende's cutaway and Freezer's cutaway. If it had a good direction, none of these issues would stand out. And IF we ever decided to exclude BANK and a terrible direction, would these fights actually be enjoyable? No, they would be still disappointing, because the overall action is pretty tame and decent AT THE MOST.

Entertainment factor: it's not enjoyable, since Nishio's direction is really bad. I can forgive reusing animation, but I can't definitely stand the lack of a GLUE between facts. In fact, the presence of Kaio's cutaway out of nowhere demonstrates what I'm saying: they either decided to include it at the last moment, or simply didn't know what to do with it. This is directed by the OG series director, so I have pretty high expectations. I was impressed by his work in ep. 35, but ep. 67 had a mediocre direction, and sadly, this one is even WORSE.

Animation: with that said, not even his storyboarding is that good. Again, with a better output, they could've even masked some BANK. And it's not over, yet, since Shindo's corrections are so all over the place, and they make things worse, in my opinion. As for the action itself, the """"highlight"""" of this episode comes from Shindo Pro's best animator, Yamamuro himself, who at least animates some decent martial arts, despite being a conservative scene. https://twitter.com/DBanimators/status/ ... 6260088832 Ryu animates Gohan and Krillin kicking Goku-Ginyu in the face and the 1st part of Vegeta vs Jeice https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/dra ... 0326184019, whereas Shibata handles the final parts, including Jeice's death. They're nothing that great, as Shibata's movements are pretty slow and tame. Either way, the real highlight of this episode are BANK, such as a shot of Piccolo from ep. 61, Ginyu's power up at the beginning from ep. 73, and EVEN Ohara's ending scene from the very next episode. This is probably the first and only time they ever reuse animation from a future episode. And of course, there's BANK everywhere. https://twitter.com/DBanimators/status/ ... 6191594496 Then again, I don't mind animation being reutilized, AS LONG AS everything else is solid enough to make up for this lack. In this case, it's really distracting.

Music: at the very least the music placement doesn't show particular issues. In fact, it's kinda good.

Overall: 4,5/10. Really frustrating.

[gaberparadiso]

Episode 74

General thoughts: this is a vast improvement over last episode. This marks the end of the Ginyu Force arc with a sort of twist, since nobody would've ever expected to see Ginyu swapping his body with a frog. The 1st half is definitely more action-focused than the 2nd, but it's better this way. Let's also point out that Saiyan arc Vegeta would've killed all three of them without a second thought, whereas THIS Vegeta spares them because he's aware of needing their help to fight Freezer. So, this can be considered the start of his character development, otherwise he would've never healed his arch-nemesis or even given some armored attire to Krillin and Gohan to strengthen their defense. And... Vegeta is drowsy, too. The needle gag is still stupid, though.

Entertainment factor: far more enjoyable than ep. 73. Ueda's direction is pretty solid, and that's pretty much what we needed.

Animation: the majority of the action focuses more on the 1st half, with Vegeta vs Ginyu being animated by the two pillars of Last House, Ohara and Shida. Ohara animates a great, fast-paced and well-directed sequence of Vegeta beating Ginyu and Goku throwing a frog to not let Ginyu changing his body with Vegeta's. https://twitter.com/DBanimators/status/ ... 9565272066 While Shida animates his best cut from the OG series, because it's insanely fast and feels utterly complete: speed, smoke effect, close combat and expressivity. This is the first cut in chronological order to resemble modern Shida. https://twitter.com/DBanimators/status/ ... 3519698944 Uncredited Uchiyama animates the small portion of Nail vs Freezer.

Music: nothing noteworthy to comment on. Okay placement: M420 on Shida's cut is oddly fitting.

Overall: 8/10. Generous? Maybe, but I enjoyed it.

Episode 75

General thoughts: to be honest, I didn't have much expectations about this episode. Thankfully, I was proven wrong: the plot is just what you would expect, since the final battle is getting closer and Gohan and Krillin have to summon Porunga to grant their wishes. And apparently, Vegeta is sleeping next to Goku, the irony. However, I have a small problem: why doesn't Freezer finish Nail off since he wasted his time? It sounds a bit contrived, knowing Freezer's personality. Besides, if Gohan and Krillin sense his approaching, what's taking him so long to arrive, also knowing his speed? Nevertheless, the direction does a pretty good job at building up tension, which is totally positive.

Entertainment factor: again, I enjoyed this one more than I thought, as Hashimoto's direction is probably his solidest seen so far.

Animation: welcome back, transitions. I'm usually not a fan of Hashimoto's storyboarding, but it's really enjoyable in this case. Porunga's summoning is quite well-directed, despite being animated by Ebisawa, whose artstyle is limited at most, but he's thankfully supported by Iida and Kan'no. Iida animates the final moments of Nail vs Freezer, whereas Kan'no handles Vegeta's fatigue, pissed off Freezer and Gohan vs Ginyu-frog. https://twitter.com/DBanimators/status/ ... 1292311555 https://twitter.com/DBanimators/status/ ... 0524294145

Music: Hashimoto's music choices mostly display some flaws, like misplacement or cutting off tracks. Even though M402-2, M1015, M1002 and M1023 are all used correctly, the latter is cut off for some reason. I liked that chorus. Karin's Lesson To Goku is getting annoying due to being so overused.

Overall: 7,5/10. What a surprise.

[TrunksTrevelyan0064]

Episodes covered: Dragon Ball Z 71-75 ("Dragon Ball 224-228")


EPISODE 71
* What's great (and unique, sadly) about the Namekians is that they care more about their people as a whole than they do about their individual selves.
* There's something funny about Goku finding it strange that someone else would be happy upon encountering someone stronger than them.
* The fight between Nail and Freeza perfectly demonstrates my problem with precise battle power numbers. We can see that Freeza is overwhelmingly more powerful, just as clearly as we could see that Raditz was far more powerful than Goku and Piccolo. The characters don't need to be assigned exact numbers that only lead to unnecessary math problems for those who go on an endless quest to try and craft a watertight list that can never be watertight.
* That aside, I do really enjoy the way Freeza interacts with Nail. So delightfully mean.

EPISODE 72
* The anime adding more Freeza minions was worth it just to see Vegeta play around with them here. It's so funny to watch him casually walk around surrounded by a whole gaggle of goons who do absolutely nothing except stare at him apprehensively.
* I get Vegeta's impatience, but it's heartwarming to see a lighthearted moment between Gohan and Kuririn. We always think of Piccolo as Gohan's closest friend, but honestly, the kid must be just as fond of Kuririn.
* I don't know why the body swap didn't swap the vocal cords, but it's actually kind of unsettling (in a good way) to hear Ginyu's voice coming from Goku's mouth, now that I'm so used to associating that face with Ms Nozawa. Speaking of whom, her performance is just fantastic, as well. Despite it being Ginyu's body, I'm still utterly convinced that that is Goku.

EPISODE 73
* I never understood why Ginyu would have so much trouble with this body. Sure, he obviously can't activate the Kaiô-Ken, but isn't adapting to new bodies something Ginyu would have done many times and gotten used to by now?
* Ooh, nice(ly animated) moves from Kuririn as he attacks Ginyu. It's nice to see him and Gohan still working in-sync like they did against those first goons they encountered on Namek. They make such a great team (which is, again, rather underappreciated compared to Piccolo & Gohan)!
* Some more interesting anime additions - Goku joining the fight, and Vegeta and Jheese fighting in Freeza's ship. That's cool.
* Every now and then it just hits me how wonderful it is to watch Dragon Ball in its prime, when its original actors were in their prime. I'm enjoying this so much.

EPISODE 74
* Powerful opening with M109 playing alongside an action sequence. That choice of music is a surprising blast from the past all of a sudden, but I like it.
* My initial gut reaction to Goku getting up and trying to fight was "no, that's not right", but it is completely in-character, and his body can't be anywhere near as battered as it was back on Earth against Piccolo or Vegeta. So... sure, I buy it.
* This sequence inside the spaceship is so peaceful in a surreal way, what with our heroes casually interacting with one intergalactic mass-murderer while trusting that the other intergalactic mass-murderer will stay away just a little longer.

EPISODE 75
* I agree with the sentiment that this first Gohan scene fits his eventual Great Saiyaman persona perfectly.
* In a morbidly hilarious way, I've always liked this bit where Dende finds the corpses of the Ginyu members.
* Nooo, don't tell him, Nail! Buy as much time as possible, remember? Sigh. Oh well. At least this means he survives long enough to assimilate with Piccolo.
* Ahh, that is a good piece of music to place alongside Porunga's first appearance. And I love that classic "zoom out" animation to showcase how humongous the dragon is.


- Goku has a bad habit of letting his guard down at crucial moments. Do you think this had been established as a theme by the time Ginyu stole his body?
Pondering this, I remembered a moment at the 22nd Tenka'ichi Budôkai, when Muten Rôshi thinks to himself "Goku has no more weaknesses". But then Kuririn pulls the "hey look over there" trick and whacks him, making Rôshi go "wellllll... except that he's too honest and trusting". Which also comes into play later on when he lets go of Raditz' tail. So I don't know if you can call it a "theme", but Goku does have a history of letting his guard down due to naïvety.

- What do you think about Toriyama's attempt to create a fictional language? Do you find it odd that the Saiyans don't seem to have one?
Much like Goku's random mind-reading trick, this is one of those typical "shrug-and-move-on" Toriyama things that don't make a whole lot of sense if you think them through. The fictional language dates back to the 23rd Budôkai, but I'm not sure why Toriyama came up with it there. Did he already have an alien ancestry backstory in mind at that point? The Saiyan arc was just around the corner, after all.

- What do you think about Freeza acting on his own without any minions to do the dirty work for him?
I think the time was just right for him to start doing things himself. It's been entertaining enough watching him order people around in a diabolically polite manner, but the story is clearly moving towards a climax - Goku has arrived, the Ginyu squad is getting wiped out, all seven Dragon Balls are together - so it's about time the big bad got more actively involved. Also, a meeting between the two head honchos (Freeza and the Grand Elder) is something that simply had to happen, even if they didn't interact much.


Favorite character: Such a tough choice once again. Most of the cast were super enjoyable throughout these episodes. I'm torn between Nail and Freeza, for completely opposite reasons. One is an awesome good guy, the other is an awesome bad guy. I think Freeza wins it ever so slightly - I have to dock Nail some points for spilling the beans at the last second. And watching Freeza go from diabolical calm to monstrous rage is always a great show in and of itself.
Previous favorites: Raditz, Gohan, the Saber Tiger, Kaiô, Tenshinhan, Vegeta(1), Kuririn(1), Bulma, Vegeta(2), Kuririn(2), the Grand Elder, Vegeta(3), Recoom, Captain Ginyu.